Three years to the day since winning his first major gold at the 2014 Commonwealth Games, Adam Peaty brought up global title number 16 at Budapest’s Duna Arena on Wednesday evening.

As has become traditional now, Peaty left his rivals trailing in his wake, the winning margin in the 50m breaststroke over half a second as he touched the wall in 25.99.

Unbeaten in a major individual final since Glasgow in 2014, every time the Brit enters the pool, it is almost assumed a victory will follow.

Olympic champion Peaty expects too and it is a mark of the high standards he now sets himself that there was initially a flicker of annoyance on his face at missing out on a hat-trick of world records in the event this week by a mere four hundredths of a second.

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That soon subsided as Peaty, who returned to the pool an hour later to help the Great Britain mixed 4x100m medley relay team to fifth, was able to look at the bigger picture.

“25.99 makes it official that I’m a 25 swimmer now so that’s good,” said Peaty, who completed the double in Budapest after winning the 100m breaststroke on Monday.

“In a final, there is obviously going to be a little bit more tension, you’re fighting for the title and not the world record.

“Unlike Rio, it’s a very different objective for me. I just wanted to go out there, get the gold.

“When I won Commonwealths, even though I was a young, skinny kid trying to take on the world, the question was whether I could win all the major titles in two years – Commonwealths, European, World and Olympics.

“I didn’t even think about world records, I just wanted those four titles within two years.

“Now I’ve done that, I’ve added an extra year now, got all my titles and world records, got 16 major golds, so over three years that is pretty good for me.

“I missed out on worlds by 0.04 four years ago and that one changed me forever.

“I said to myself after that race that it was never happening again and me and Mel (Marshall, Peaty’s coach) worked very hard and the rest is history.”

There would not be a sixth world medal for Peaty later in the evening as Great Britain were unable to defend the mixed medley relay title they won two years ago in Kazan.

Peaty swam 57.12 on the second leg to put his team in contention but Siobhan-Marie O’Connor was unable to hold onto bronze at the end, as the team finished 0.31 off the podium, while America lowered their own world record to win gold.

“I knew we were not going to be in our best position as post-Olympics there has been a lot of youngsters coming through and we were trying to fill the gaps,” added Peaty, the City of Derby swimmer now based at the national centre at Loughborough.

“Now it is an Olympic event we will be focusing that extra 10, 20 per cent to hopefully win in Tokyo.

“It was a hard swim for me, normally I’m used to smooth water but it is a learning curve for me.

“If we have to play that card in Tokyo I will know what it feels like. I couldn’t be prouder of the guys tonight though.”

You can help the next generation of young British swimmers by getting involved in SportsAid Week this September with five-time Paralympic champion Ellie Simmonds OBE. Find out more about how you can support the week of fun and fundraising by visiting www.sportsaid.org.uk/sportsaidweek.